GENERALOBSERVATIONS. 3 



persed in ranges, like the buildings of a modern city, and covering sometimes an 

 area of many acres. 



Further to the southward, in the region watered by the Ohio and its tributaries, 

 we find ancient works of greater magnitude and more manifest design. Among 

 them are a lew animal-shaped structures ; but they seem to have been erected on 

 dift'erent principles and for a different purpose from those just noticed. Here we 

 find numberless mounds, most of them conical but many pyramidal in form, and 

 often of great dimensions. The pyramidal structures are always truncated, some- 

 times terraced, and generally have graded ascents to their summits. They bear a 

 close resemblance to the Teocallis of Mexico ; and the known uses of the latter are 

 suggestive of the probable purposes to which they were applied. Accompanying 

 these, and in some instances sustaining an intimate relation to them, are numerous 

 enclosures of earth and stone, frequently of vast size, and often of regular outline. 

 These are by far the most imposing class of our aboriginal remains, and impress 

 us most sensibly with the numbers and power of the people who built them. The 

 purposes of many of these are quite obvious ; and investigation has served to settle, 

 pretty clearly, the character of most of the other works occurring in connection 

 with them. 



Proceeding still further southwards, we find, in the States bordering on the Gulf 

 of Mexico, the mounds increasing in size and regularity of form, if not in mmibers. 

 Conical mounds become comparatively rare, and the Teocalli-shaped structures 

 become larger and more numerous, and assume certain dependencies in respect to 

 each other, not before observed. The enclosures, on the other hand, diminish in 

 size and numbers ; and lose many of the characteristic features of those of a higher 

 latitude, though still sustaining towards them a strong general resemblance. Here, 

 for the first time, we find traces of bricks in the mounds and in the walls of 

 enclosures. 



The peculiarities of these several divisions will be more particularly pointed out 

 in the progress of this work ; when the points of resemblance and difference will 

 become more apparent. The succeeding observations relate more especially to 

 the remains included in the central geographical section above indicated, where 

 the investigations recorded in this volume were principally carried on, and which, 

 in the extent, variety, and interesting nature of its ancient monuments, affords by 

 tar the richest and most important field for arclui?ological research and inquiry. 



The number of these ancient remains is well calculated to excite surprise, and 

 has been adduced in support of the hypothesis that they are most, if not all of them, 

 natural formations, " the results of diluvial action," modified perhaps in some 

 instances, but never erected by man. Of course no such suggestion was ever 

 made by individuals who had enjoyed the opportunity of seeing and investigating 

 them. Simple structures of earth could not possibly bear more palpable evidences 

 of an artificial origin, than do most of the western monuments. The evidences in 

 support of this assertion, derived from the form, structure, position, and contents 

 of these remains, Avill sufficiently appear in the progress of this work. 



Plate H, exhibiting a section of twelve miles of the Scioto valley, with its ancient 



